Uwe Hermann - tipshttp://www.hermann-uwe.de/taxonomy/term/1327/0
enDebian Lessonshttp://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/debian-lessons
<p>I've stumbled over <a href="http://liw.iki.fi/liw/">Lars Wirzenius</a>' article <a href="http://liw.iki.fi/liw/texts/debian-lessons.html">Debian Lessons</a> (Subtitle: <em>Project management lessons from the Debian project</em>) today. The article is from 2000 (updated 2004), but is still very, very relevant nowadays. Here's the table of contents (reading this alone would already help many projects out there, I think):</p>
<ul>
<li>Make sure things scale up.</li>
<li>Make sure the foundation is good.</li>
<li>Document important things.</li>
<li>Automate repetitive tasks when possible.</li>
<li>Avoid single points of failure, especially for volunteers.</li>
<li>Do not worry about time tables; keep goals realistic.</li>
<li>Make it easy to work independently.</li>
<li>Do not overload developers.</li>
<li>Be open and keep things public.</li>
<li>Make it easy to contribute.</li>
<li>Some barrier to entry may be necessary for quality and security.</li>
<li>Have leadership.</li>
<li>Conflicts are natural, but mustn't get out of hand.</li>
<li>Use a bug tracking system.</li>
<li>Real world politics matter.</li>
<li>Controversial issues will result in a flame war and often will never really end.</li>
<li>Compensation helps keep people motivated.</li>
<li>Never, ever, write a program to mail Debian developers automatically. Always make automatic mails opt-in.</li>
<li>Don't make assumptions about people's background.</li>
</ul>
<p>Make sure to <a href="http://liw.iki.fi/liw/texts/debian-lessons.html">read the whole article</a>. This compilation of tips should prove useful for many community-driven Free Software project out there.</p>
http://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/debian-lessons#commentsadvicedebianfree softwarelessonsopen sourceproject managementtipsSat, 15 Apr 2006 00:20:47 +0200Uwe Hermann883 at http://www.hermann-uwe.de